Level Playing Field
Each of the four episodes tells a different story from the world of sports to reveal a broader social inequality impacting all of us. In one case, that means following the plight of an NCAA student-athlete to understand what it can tell us about American labor policy - policy that is often shaped to serve the interests of employers in all sorts of industries. In another, that means revisiting a debate over midnight basketball in the 1990s to understand how racial politics warped a debate over funding a youth sports program.
- 2021-2021
- 1 season
- Documentary, Sports
Each of the four episodes tells a different story from the world of sports to reveal a broader social inequality impacting all of us. In one case, that means following the plight of an NCAA student-athlete to understand what it can tell us about American labor policy - policy that is often shaped to serve the interests of employers in all sorts of industries. In another, that means revisiting a debate over midnight basketball in the 1990s to understand how racial politics warped a debate over funding a youth sports program.
Season 1 Episode Guide
4 Episodes 2021
Episode 1
Midnight Basketball
Tue, Sep 14, 2021 29 mins
An investigation of how the innovative youth program Midnight Basketball League became a pawn in racial debates about the 1994 Crime Bill.
Episode 2
Misclassified
Tue, Sep 21, 2021 26 mins
A look at the NCAA's creation of the term "student-athlete" and how it connects to the widespread misclassification of workers today.
Episode 3
Down the Backstretch
Tue, Sep 28, 2021 26 mins
A look at the policy shift that has made horseracing's most vital workers vulnerable and laid bare the need for immigration reform.
Episode 4
The Assist
Tue, Oct 5, 2021 24 mins
Sports and activism collide when WNBA players push Georgia residents to challenge voter suppression and vote for Reverend Raphael Warnock.
